DESCRIPTION OF GREENLAND. 229 



had a mountain of gold in his vessels. But he had to do 

 with a man who is not very credible. He asked for some of 

 this sand, and having had it examined by the goldsmiths of 

 Copenhagen, they told him they could not get a single grain 

 of gold from it. The Grand INIaster, enraged that the pilot 

 should have allowed himself to be so duped, and to show 

 that he had no part in it, commanded him to go immediately 

 to the Sound, where his vessel was, to Aveigh anchor, and to 

 proceed into the main sea in the Baltic, to bury there his 

 gold and his folly, and never again to speak of either. The 

 pilot Avas obliged to obey him, and, whether it was because 

 he thought he had thrown all his wealth into the sea, or that 

 he beheld himself fallen from the high hopes of riches he had 

 conceived, it is certain that he died very soon after from one 

 or the other cause of grief. We cannot blame the Grand Master 

 for his harsh orders to the pilot ; for he told me that they have 

 since found in the mines of Norway similar sand to that of 

 Greenland, of which I have just spoken ; and that an intelli- 

 gent workman in minerals and mines, who came not long ago 

 to Copenhagen, extracted very good gold from it, and in a 

 quantity proportionate to the sand. He was incited to this 

 precipitation by the ignorance of the other workmen, who 

 would have known no better how to extract the ore even 

 from the material in which it is found in Peru than from this 

 sand. 



This is the last voyage that has been made to New Green- 

 land, and it is from this voyage that the large piece of 

 horn was brought, which the physician of the Grand Duke of 

 Muscovy said was only the tooth of a fish. The host of the 

 ambassador of Copenhagen, who is of this company, showed 

 us this piece, which he values at six thousand rix dollars. 

 The Danes, before their departure from Greenland, detained 

 and secured two savages to take to Denmark. They set them 

 loose when they got out to sea, and they, excited with love 

 for their country, finding themselves free, jumped into the 



